


Metsuboujinrai.stairs

by Bobcatmoran



Series: Metsuboujinrai.fic [1]
Category: Kamen Rider Zero-One
Genre: Gen, Humor, Pre-Canon, kids don't try this at home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22441897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobcatmoran/pseuds/Bobcatmoran
Summary: Featuring Horobi, a fairly newly-activated Jin, and the ghost of my mom yelling at me and my sibs to stop jumping down the stairs.
Series: Metsuboujinrai.fic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614883
Comments: 9
Kudos: 23





	Metsuboujinrai.stairs

Jin had been built with the bare minimum of pre-installed modules, just basic language comprehension, motor skills, and a robust learning algorithm, because Horobi had wanted his helper (his creation, his son) (no, not his son, that was a human construct) to be as free from human influence as possible, and that included freedom from whatever garbage humans had thought would be important for Humagears to know. Jin, with Horobi’s guidance, could decide for himself what would be important, and it would not be anything designed to be servile to humans. 

True, leaving Jin’s potential so open-ended also left the possibility of him learning things that were less than optimal, but in a worst-case scenario, he could always have his memory wiped and be restored from one of his frequent backups. Horobi hoped he wouldn’t have to resort for that, but it was good to have that option, just in case.

Meanwhile, Jin was developing by leaps and bounds, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Horobi wasn’t sure when this particular behavior had started. Sometime very soon after Jin first figured out how to go up and down stairs, probably. The first couple times had been very cautious, with Jin keeping a death grip on the railing, making sure both feet were secure on one step before going to the next. But like with everything else, Jin had quickly advanced, thanks to his learning protocols. 

He’d figured out within days of that first excursion on the stairs that not only could he walk down the stairs, he could jump down them, flying over first the bottom stair and then, as he grew bolder, two stairs, three stairs, and then more and more. And since the building Metsuboujinrai.net had its headquarters in had once been a high-rise, there were a lot of stairs to do this on.

Horobi himself chose to walk down the stairs like a rational being, but Jin had a willingness to go outside the expected norms which bode well for his future. Besides, Horobi told himself, it was probably good for developing Jin’s motor skills.

At least, that was what Horobi told himself until one day when Jin was coming back from exploring the building’s upper floors. He could tell by the loud THUMPs he could hear coming from the stairwell that Jin was jumping down entire flights of stairs at once, interspersed only with the couple of steps needed to navigate the landings. _THUMP. tmptmp THUMP. tmp tmp THUMP. tmp tmp CLANG_ “Waaah!” _clatter clatter thunk_.

That was Jin’s voice. Horobi found himself moving faster than he had in years, and in no time at all was at the landing where Jin was lying flat on his back, looking a bit dazed and confused.

“Jin!” Horobi said sharply. “What happened?”

Jin sat up and blinked at Horobi. “I fell.”

“Yes, I can see that. How did you —“ Horobi looked up the flight of stairs, at an overhanging pipe that had a blue smear on it. 

Jin followed his gaze and frowned. A thin line of blue coolant was oozing out of his forehead, matching the blue on the pipe. “Oh,” he said in a small voice, and raised his hand to probe at his forehead wound, only to miss and smack himself in the face. He blinked, confused.

“Jin, what are you—“

Jin tried again to poke at his forehead, and this time his hand swiped past his head, missing it completely. He glared at his hand, frowning, then made to try again.

Horobi grabbed Jin’s hand before he hit himself in the face again. “Jin. Stop. Your proximity sensors appear to be damaged.”

Jin looked at his hand again, then back to Horobi. “You can fix it?” he asked hopefully.

“Let’s get you downstairs,” Horobi said in response. After a few false starts, he managed to help Jin up to a standing position, at which point Jin decided to start walking downstairs. He missed the first step entirely, and it was only Horobi’s Humagear strength that was able to pull him back up and keep him from falling down a second flight of stairs.

“Are we stuck here?” Jin asked anxiously. “Am I going to be broken forever?”

“You’re not going to be broken forever, don’t be ridiculous,” Horobi said. There were three flights of stairs still left between where they were and their room, where Horobi kept his tools. He looked at Jin, then back at the stairs. “Jin. Don’t move.”

“Huh?”

In one smooth motion, Horobi scooped Jin up in his arms.

Jin jerked in surprise and kicked Horobi in the leg, nearly causing Horobi to drop him. 

“Hold still,” Horobi said, adjusting his grip. “And if you can, hold on around my neck.”

This was perhaps not the best suggestion, as Jin then wound up hitting Horobi in the face twice and slapped him once in the neck before he got his arms situated, draped around Horobi’s neck.

“Hold still,” Horobi repeated as Jin leaned forward, peering down the stairs dubiously. “I don’t want to drop you.”

Jin looked alarmed at this prospect and held himself absolutely rigid while Horobi carefully made his way back downstairs and then set Jin down in the wheelchair.

“Horobi, you can fix me?” Jin asked, worried.

“I should be able to,” Horobi said. He hoped he wouldn’t have to reset Jin entirely, as that would erase all the progress he had made. However, if that proved to be necessary, he’d do what needed to be done.

* * *

“Take off tt-t-t-t-t-“ Jin’s startup sound trailed off. Horobi absently wondered if it would be possible to eliminate it completely. Jin opened his eyes, focused on Horobi, and smiled. 

“How do you feel, Jin?” Horobi asked.

Jin frowned, held his hands out in front of him, and tried clapping them together. Upon success, he beamed. “Horobi, I’m all fixed!”

“You are,” Horobi said, allowing himself a small smile.

Jin hopped out of the wheelchair. “Do you need my help with anything?”

“Not for now,” Horobi said.

“Okay. I’m going to go up to the roof to watch the birds,” Jin declared.

“As long as you don’t jump down the stairs on your way back.”


End file.
